Pulse of The People: Vote for the third party candidate

The presidential election is around the corner and once again the two major parties and their cronies in the corporate mainstream media have been able to lockout all third party candidates from the highly televised debates while pushing the idea that only "battleground" states are in the mix anymore. With the inception of their "red state-blue state" maps the media have conveniently allowed the Democrats and Republicans to focus their resources in a mere nine states as the remaining forty-one states are to be taken for granted as being automatically "red" ( Republican ) or "blue" (Democrat.)

If this pattern, which started a few election cycles ago, continues in the future, will people in the non-battleground states become self-disenfranchised by considering voting as a waste of time and futility? Unfortunately, the answer is probably affirmative in the long run. Some local or statewide races may generate excitement and greater participation but the most valued and highly sought after position with the greatest influence in our country could be relegated to a secondary level. It's time for people to step up and look for real change now and voting for a third party candidate is the way to go.

Granted, under the current circumstances no third party candidate has a chance to capture the White House but the populace needs a starting point to gain access to more ideas and opinions and that could be by casting a vote for former New Mexico governor and current Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson who has secured a ballot spot in all 50 states. Over the years people have said that voting third party is throwing your vote away. I say that New Yorkers who buy into the "red state-blue state" maps are throwing away their votes if they vote for Romney and they're being taken for granted if they vote for Obama.

Interestingly, the stances taken by the two major candidates are similar on so many issues that there's numerous videos and audios on alternative websites and radio stations documenting them in their own words. Of course, taking either of the major party candidates at their word is tantamount to being naive or suffering from a lack of critical thinking. While the vast majority of people in this country oppose or opposed the ongoing wars, the open borders, the banker bailout, the oncoming surveillance/police state, the constitution-shredding Patriot Act, the assault on property rights and potential future reductions in social security, these topics are not up for discussion as both candidates are on board with the current state of the state.

Advertisement

As a Libertarian, Johnson espouses both liberal and conservative stances on different issues, some of which I strongly disagree with, but he is aware of the aforementioned issues and is not afraid of addressing them. On Oct. 23, presidential candidates Jill Stein of the Green Party, Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party joined the former governor in a debate hosted by Larry King and sponsored by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation which covered topics ranging from marijuana legalization to the use of drones and a host of topics in between - with basically little to no media coverage whatsoever.

Rep. Ron Paul is encouraging citizens to vote for third party candidates regardless of their affiliation as he's aware that the two major parties are in collusion to keep differing viewpoints from reaching the public domain. After Ross Perot gained a foothold in the 1992 presidential race and even had the lead briefly, the powers-to-be at the top of the major parties initiated their program to keep all non-Democrat/Republican candidates as far from the public purview as possible. Johnson filed a lawsuit to partake in the highly televised debates, but like Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader before him, he was locked out. Vote for real change or vote to protest the status quo by casting your ballot for any third party candidate, preferably Gary Johnson.